Acela Engineering joined Catasauqua’s George Taylor House volunteers to incorporate high-end technology for a historical record of the national landmark.

George Taylor was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Few original home sites of the signers of the Declaration remain. The signers pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.”

Most lost their lives as they were targeted by the British. Homes and holdings were targeted and destroyed on direct orders from the monarchy. George Taylor’s house, Lehigh and Poplar streets, was out of the direct path of war and escaped destruction.

The upkeep of the property changed hands from Lehigh County to Catasauqua Borough. After several years of struggling to maintain the historic residence, a new group of volunteers is interested in reviving the George Taylor House site.

“While other people have come in to trace down rumors of burial grounds, we want to concentrate on the building,” said Daniel Witczak, president of Acela Engineering.

Witczak and architect Joe Herman invested in new technology that will scan the building.

“When you have buildings like the George Taylor House that are national treasures worth preserving, we need to get an assessment of their present condition,” Herman said.

Acela Engineering took the first step toward restoring the George Taylor House with a detailed scan of the building Aug. 10.

“With the level of accuracy we are able to achieve, we can determine if there is any shifting in the structure over the past 200-plus years,” Herman said. “We have a good basis for moving forward. We invested in the technology because we believe it is essential to know the base plan for structures that require renovation. We can load this data on our servers and have a detailed look, not only at individual rooms, but we can show the space between floorboards.

“We scanned the interior and the exterior of the building and the out buildings with our technology. The scanner is accurate to within one millimeter,” he said. “This gives a very good picture of the building’s condition. For custom windows, we can pull the measurements to tolerances that will allow the windows to be crafted off site and easily installed.

“We need to look at windows particularly,” Herman noted. “The existing ones are deteriorating rapidly, and the borough spent an excessive amount on replacing three windows. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to make custom windows for each opening.”

Recent upgrades include a new slate roof to stop major leaking, but much work still needs to be done.

Acela’s technology is recognized nationally, and the company is actively scanning historic sites for preservation and renovation projects.

The next steps in the process are a renovation plan and then fundraising for the preservation work.